Day 31 – Thursday 19 August 2021 – km

This morning we took a leisurely walk up to the old Townsville Convent, now the Cooktown Museum. This is notable as it houses an anchor and cannon that were thrown overboard when Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, hit a reef.  The museum is very well laid out and provides a very good history of the Cooktown region, its settlement & growth. We ended up spending a few hours inside this amazing building.

It was lunchtime so we bought some buns from the bakery and some prawns down at the fisherman’s wharf and went down to the waterfront. We were sitting near Cook’s statue looking over the Endeavour River and the boats moored there, one had sunk & a few stranded on the sandbar at low tide.

Next was an adventure out to see Trevethan Falls, named after a forebear of one of our good friends in Canberra, Mike Trevethan. The nearby rock covered mountains are covered with Trevethan granite. The turn-off is a bit south of Cooktown & the dirt road is good for around 10km, before we turn off at a hand-painted sign & down a dirt road that gets worse. After the next turn the road gets worse again then becomes a rough track winding through the bush, with exposed tree roots & rocks & ruts & hollows. We stop as the track starts heading up hill & gets even worse again. As we walk the last 200 metres we are glad we stopped where we did. The track gets really bad & then the walking track up to the falls is very bad & rough. The Trevethan Falls are worth it though, stunning & dropping into a deep pool, surrounded only by nature. The walk out is just as bad & the road was no better.

Back at camp we decided to walk to the old cemetery along the old railway track to Laura. We passed where the old railway yards where & saw the ruins of the old yards plus the wreck of the old rail motor car. An elderly couple were working on keeping the old bits & pieces in some sort of order. The walk along the old railway track is very pleasant with mangroves on either side before we branch off across the mudflats then through the trees to the old cemetery. We look at some of the old headstones then walk the track down to the old Chinese shrine, separate to the other cemetery. There is a lone grave a little further on of a woman that died out to sea just off Cooktown. The walk back is just as pleasant & we are tired when we get back to our van.

Dinner is back down at the wharf at Cook’s Landing with a fisherman’s basket on the deck looking out at the river as the sun sets. A couple of very large grouper are swimming just below the deck as the tide rises. We enjoy the seafood and the sunset. Another great day to be thankful for.